SATS, niece & Bugsy Malone!

Intriguing Title no? Call this post Creative Writing part 2 or whatever lol.

Yesterday was both lovely and sad, lovely because my sibling and daughter came over to stay over for the night with my mother, sad because we all as a family visited my father in Hospital, not the most enjoyable of experiences but there you old age creeps up on every one of us and the best we can do is make life comfortable for him.

Young children have a wonderful gift of making sad days enjoyable if that’s the correct word, my niece is age10 extremely amusing and tells wonderfully expressive and entertaining stories only a child could get away with, yes she was a little bored but she does bring a smile to my mother’s face.

AND I have to be very aware of not sounding tooo opiniated and definitely steering clear of controversial stories such as the British Syrian IS bride, she left these shores age15, married an IS fighter, bore him 3 children and last week walked right into a political shit storm and that’s an understatement. Well our Home Secretary, a Muslim himself, stripped her of UK citizenship consequently the mother fled her refugee camp and yesterday the media announced the baby had died! Oh I forgot to say all three babies are now dead 😦 .

Why did our Home Secretary Sajid Javed deny her a passage hope? Needless to say for poliical reasons the thought of an IS fighter returning to these shores sent our Right Wing newspapers into apoplectic rage and sadly this young woman became but a pawn in a political firestorm…………… however she didn’t apologise for joining IS and appeared to say suicide victims in Britain deserved to die.

No I cannot make sense of this story either.

Anyways hopefully there’ll be no blood shed on British streets, would be helpful if ego driven Diane Abbot (I hate that woman) shut her mouth and stopped fanning flames with her unhelpful Tweets, people will die unless she shuts her mouth…………. anyways I try to stay clear of discussing politics and you do have to be mindful of impressionable young ears listening, and a quick sideways glance reveals she’s sitting quietly and taking it all in.

How do 10year old children cope with watching suicide bombing stories on the News? Forty years ago I lived in a more peaceful age, but today one look at Google and the emotionally insecure will witness unimaginable wicked horror stories, I’m able to make sense and process this awfulness, but has a child those same skills?

Well after returning home as a family from hospital, my sibling cooked steak and chips, we ate a traditional family meal sitting around the dining table laughing chatting and breaking bread together, then after I’d washed the dishes we all sat in comfy for an English lesson and to watch the musical film Bugsy Malone, a family movie in the truest sense enjoyed by three generations.

So there we four were sat in the living room, tv switched off as it always should be, and a reluctant niece had to pay attention to her parent’s questions from her SATS English revision book.

Actually it was both an interesting and highly instructive English lesson from a highly readable book, and the irony is I’ve been secretly writing both posts and comments on WordPress for over a year now, lol little do they know and I’m seriously wondering whether to purchase this gem of a book. Yes I’m aware of enough grammar rules to get me by, however more than one question had me an my mother silently catching each other’s eye with thoughts of, ‘well I don’t know the answer either.’

All good fun.

Chatting afterwards and both myself and sibling agreed we hadn’t watched Bugsy Malone in thirty years, Scott Baio plays the beautiful streetwise and ‘fix any problem’ heart-throb brilliantly, and of course Jodie Foster plays the sexy singer Tallulah, a 1930’s gangster Chicago eye candy, and yes before you remind me in comments Jodie was only 13! 

I AM aware!!

But jeeze her gangster Moll character oozes sex appeal, hear me out, just watch the YouTube Video below and I’d suggest her performance is very close to being inappropriate, but I guess way back in the day when the movie was made we lived in more innocent times.

Yes a fabulous charming movie played by children (oh ❤ love the cars) and packed with tunes that’ll have me humming all next week, gorgeous sets and I couldn’t help musing Bugsy Malone would could never be filmed today, there is no way on earth a 13year old girl could dress up as a sexualised young woman with lipstick and pouting kisses, not after so many recent child sex scandals. Jeeze just imagine the ensuing Twitter shitstorm, with morality Police and mortally offended keyboard warriors labelling the director whatever and demanding an apology.

Lol a day laced with THREE opinions best kept to myself, and all in all an end to a family day of mixed emotions.

(So what do you think when watching Jodie Foster’s electric and mesmerising acting performance, inappropriate for 2019? Or am I over-reacting much like today’s ‘Tweeters’? Either ways it’s an interesting debate, anyways I’m cool with this fabulous family musical and have been humming the tunes ever since……………………. ahh! I’ve worked just it out!! Jodie lip-sinks…………… a woman’s voice is used……….. that’s why!)

 

©A. Shepherdson 2019